


The form

by ImGroovyAndIKnowIt



Series: MI6 shenanigans [2]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Cherik as dads, Life and Such at MI6, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImGroovyAndIKnowIt/pseuds/ImGroovyAndIKnowIt
Summary: Fluffy epilogue to Remember, Remember. Set around two years after the original story
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Series: MI6 shenanigans [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2083269
Kudos: 15





	The form

**Author's Note:**

> Starting the last day of the year by posting fluffy Cherik fic is a nice way to close the lid on 2020, in my humble opinion :D Hope you all enjoy!

It was the day before the twins’ first day of middle school, and Erik wasn’t here. Charles tried not to mope about it, but he didn’t really succeed. Yes, he knew missions were often unpredictable, and there was no way Erik could guarantee anything, but he was supposed to be home three days ago and Charles was growing restless, endless scenarios of what could have gone wrong assaulting his mind. 

“When is daddy gonna be home?” Wanda asked for the third time that morning. 

“I don’t know, sweetheart. Soon,” Charles replied, also for the third time. 

The twins had adjusted wonderfully to their new situation. They probably had an even easier time than Erik. The first time Wanda had called him daddy, he’d had a minor breakdown, as if it had finally dawned on him that he was a father. Charles had felt that when they’d received the official adoption papers, too. They were finally a family.

Charles had referred the twins to one of his colleagues who was an expert in child psychology and was working with them on processing the traumatic events. Erik had been a grump about it, of course, but even he couldn’t deny the effects of a good therapist. Charles smirked at the thought.

“He’ll be back,” Pietro said, lacing his shoes.

“Doesn’t he always come back?” Charles asked, handing Wanda her jacket. It was starting to get windy outside. 

Wanda sighed and put her jacket on. Charles grabbed his phone and keys and headed out the door. The worst part about Erik being on missions was that he couldn’t communicate, so Charles couldn’t tell the kids anything for sure.

It was not only the kids who worried, though. When Erik was out, Charles was anxious. Erik had become more prudent, less reckless in those two years since Shaw was out of the picture, but it didn’t make his job any less dangerous.

Charles wasn’t sure whether he was happier now that he didn’t hear the details of Erik’s missions or if he’d rather know. As he wasn’t Erik’s psych evaluator anymore -for obvious reasons-, information was restricted. Part of him wanted to know how close Erik had got to death this time; part of him liked to be in denial about the whole thing.

Charles dropped the twins off at the activity centre for the day and headed for the MI6 base. He wasn’t due there until the afternoon, but Raven had asked for his professional opinion on something. He did his best not to read too much into it. This would at least take his mind off of Erik being three days late.

He went through the whole security protocol at the entrance of the base and left his phone there. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the exact moment Erik was back and tried to call him. He refused to part with the little black box in his vest, though. It was a ridiculous thing to carry it with him everywhere when Erik wasn’t even around, but he liked the reminder that soon, he would propose. With a little luck, Erik would say yes, and they would get married. The thought helped him at night when Erik was away and he was alone in his cold bed, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave it at the entrance like a common smartphone. 

Charles walked through the now-familiar corridors, his feet taking him to the kitchen without thinking about it. There had been a time where the maze of floors and corridors had been disorienting, but he knew the base like the back of his hand now.

“Morning,” he chirped, coming into the kitchen as Alex was throwing a cashew nut in the air. Sean dove to catch it with his mouth and cheered as he chewed it. They high fived while Charles reached for a mug in the cupboard. “I see you’re utilising your skills in the best way possible,” he said, laughing.

“What if I have to be a professional cashew thrower in my next mission? Who’s gonna laugh then?” Alex asked, grabbing another nut from the bag.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m still going to laugh,” Charles said. “Not when Sean chokes, though.”

“He’s not gonna choke,” Alex replied, and Sean sent him a look.

“Of course not. When I coughed my lungs out ten minutes ago, I wasn’t choking at all,” Sean said with a nod. “Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you would be wi-”

Alex grabbed a handful of cashews and stuffed them in Sean’s mouth to stop him talking. Sean’s eyes widened and he closed his mouth, looking like an overstuffed hamster. 

“What?” Charles asked.

As he looked at Alex and Sean, they both had an air of practised innocence, and he was all the more intrigued. They were hiding something from him. Strangers who got to know his profession were usually like that too -- closed off as if Charles was going to unbury all their secrets by watching them -- but not people from the department. At least, not since Erik. And Erik ended up falling in love with him, so Charles couldn’t be that terrifying. 

“Nothing,” Alex grinned at him, showing a lot of teeth, which was weirder. 

Charles shook his head, poured water into his mug and carried it to his office. He was meeting Raven at 10, which gave him ten minutes to spare. When he got to his office, the light was on inside. He opened the door, wondering if he’d forgotten to turn off the lights when leaving last time. 

Someone was sitting in his chair.

He gasped, even as his eyes fell on Erik.

Erik sat there, looking at him with a smug smile. Charles took in the sight of him, every visible bit of skin unbroken, not looking traumatised, and he released a breath.

“You should be careful about who you let in there,” Erik said, as if he hadn’t broken in. “I considered waiting for you in the dark, but thought that might give you a heart attack.”

A laugh bubbled up Charles’s throat and he set his mug down on his desk before launching himself into Erik’s arms. Erik stood up, and they met almost violently, first hugging, then kissing, and before it could turn into something else, Charles poked at Erik’s chest.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” he exclaimed, not sure to be outraged or happy.

Erik shrugged. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, I am surprised,” Charles said, running his hand down Erik’s side. 

“Charles, I’m not hurt,” Erik said with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m just checking. Your definition of hurt is… different,” Charles kissed Erik’s lips and glanced at the clock. “I have to see Raven. She asked me to meet her. What are your plans?”

“My plans are your plans,” Erik said, and Charles cocked his head. That was hardly a coherent answer. “Raven doesn’t want to see you. She helped me to get you here.”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “I’m intrigued. Why did you go to all that trouble?”

“Charles…” Erik started, picking up something out of Charles’s line of sight, and something in his tone made Charles’s heart beat faster.

The bright orange evaluation form was the last thing Charles had expected. When Erik held it, Charles laughed and shook his head without giving it a proper glance. “Not this time,” he said. “I thought Brooks was fine?”

“Remember when we met?” Erik asked instead. 

Charles huffed out a laugh. Of course, he remembered Erik slipping his eval form under the door and expecting to find it signed when he came back -- as if Charles would send anyone back on the field he hadn’t personally talked to, especially someone who had broken their hand on a man’s skull. Erik had been different then, abrasive - not meeting his eyes, giving the shortest possible answers, circling around Charles like a shark. Having Shaw sentenced to life in prison had done him a world of good, and Charles hoped he’d also helped a little along the way. 

“How could I forget?”

“When you annoyed me into talking to you,” Erik said, looking down at the form.

“You mean when I had to blackmail you to let me do your job,” Charles said with a shake of his head. Erik leaned in to kiss him, and Charles forgot about anything else but Erik’s lips, the warmth of his hands and the simple relief of having him back.

They spent a moment in each other’s arms before Charles spoke again. “How did your mission go?” he asked. With the way Erik kept clutching the form, there had to be something he had to get off his chest.

“We caught the last name on the list yesterday.”

Charles’s eyebrows shot up. That explained it. Chasing the last few people on that damned list before he could close that chapter of his life had driven Erik crazy these past few months. He hadn’t been able to relax at all. To think that this was finally and truly over...

He narrowed his eyes, picking up on a slight detail Erik hadn’t expanded on. “When you say caught…”

Erik’s grin was unsettling, and that was all the answer Charles needed. He wasn’t a fan of the licence to kill that was part of Erik’s job, and he liked even less the unnecessary killing. Now wasn’t the moment to argue about that. Charles couldn’t change the whole of secret services methods because he wanted to.

“It was an accident,” Erik said, to which Charles rolled his eyes.

“Sure it was,” Charles replied. “How do you feel now?”

It took a moment for Erik to answer, his unfocused gaze taking his mind anywhere but in the present. Charles was in no rush. “I completed my parents’ mission,” he said at last.

“They would be proud of you,” Charles said softly, his thumb stroking the hard angle of Erik’s jaw. When Erik looked at him again, Charles smiled. 

This moment was as perfect as any.

Foolishly, he’d made grand plans and agonised over small details, wondered about the weather if he wanted to propose outside and considered ten different places, but in the end, here and now was perfect. In his office, where it all started, where he’d come to know Erik, where he’d seen the deadly spy come to terms with his parents’ murder, with his own trauma.

He’d had trouble reconciling both sides of Erik at the time: the one who thought a little too much about inflicting harm upon people, the one for which violence was a given, the snarky one hell-bent on aggravating Charles any way he could; and the side he’d shown to the two orphans he’d taken under his wings, the one which was protective, and caring, the one that wanted to do its best for the people he loved, the one who wanted to change the world. Charles’s head had spun from the conflict, but not anymore. This made Erik who he was, a beautiful study in contradictions. Neither of them was perfect - Charles was too idealistic, Erik kept reminding him - but he’d fallen in love with the man as a whole, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yes, this moment would do just fine. 

Charles reached into his jacket and pulled out the small box he’d cherished over the last weeks. He’d got them simple silver bands, with the intention of upgrading to gold ones when they married. 

When he opened the box, the deep frown that settled on Erik’s face as he glanced down at that bloody form still clutched in his hand made the question die on Charles’s lips.

Erik was going to say no, wasn’t he? He wasn’t ready, how could Charles have ignored the signs? It wasn’t like being observant was a part of his job.

“Forget it, we don’thave to…” Charles started, closing the box with a snap and reaching for his pocket again to hide it away.

Erik’s astounding reflexes caught Charles’s hand before it reached his jacket and Charles’s breath hitched in his throat. He looked up again, blinking back tears, as Erik took hold of the rings and slipped one on his hand, the other on Charles’s.

“Of course I will,” he said gently, his fingers stroking Charles’s hand bringing him back to the present -- a present where Charles was engaged, just like that.

“I thought you wouldn’t,” Charles whispered as if speaking louder would make Erik change his mind. “The look on your face.”

Erik gave a teary chuckle, and Charles tried to remember if he’d seen tears in Erik’s eyes before, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was them, the love that they shared, and the future that lay ahead.

They embraced again, for an amount of time that Charles couldn’t register, content in this new reality.

“You never looked at this,” Erik said when his arms loosened around Charles’s back and he leaned away slightly.

To Charles’s astonishment, Erik was still holding on to his psych evaluation form. He groaned. What did this have to do with them? What could possibly be important enough on this piece of paper that it needed Charles’s attention on one of the most impactful moments of his life? On the one moment where he asked his partner to be his for the rest of their lives?

Erik handed him the paper with a broad smile. The unusual grin alone was worth a look.

It turned out, it really was worth a look. Across the page, in big, blocky letters, five words were written. Five words that made Charles’s heart clench and his throat tighten. 

_Charles, will you marry me?_

Erik squeezed Charles’s left hand that he hadn’t let go of, running his finger over the new piece of jewellery there. “Let it be known that I proposed first. Nevermind that you didn’t take me seriously enough to read it.”

Charles laughed.

This wasn’t the last time that the who-proposed-first argument would come up in their life together.


End file.
